IT Blog

Meraki Cloud Management from Cisco is here to transform the educational approach. Today, society is aware that the best investment is in knowledge, and what better investment than this technology?

Schools and universities are meeting the demand for flexible, hybrid learning environments and the necessity for an agile infrastructure that is ready to embrace all the changes.

The role of technology within the education sector has grown and will continue to grow as new challenges arise.

That is why we, as a Managed Service Provider, recommend Cisco Meraki Cloud Management to manage the network of Schools and Universities, achieving performance like never before.

Institutions must take a proactive approach to transform their classrooms and campuses while remaining flexible about how and where students are educated.

 

What is Meraki Cloud Management?

Cisco Meraki Cloud Management changed the way we think about network management.

This incredible out-of-band cloud architecture creates scalable and secure networks that provide easy deployment and can be managed from anywhere.

Most importantly, it can be done with flexibility from any device using the web-based Meraki Dashboard and the Meraki Mobile App.

Meraki started as a project called Roofnet designed to bring wireless connectivity to the city of Cambridge. The company grew tremendously and was acquired by Cisco in 2012.

Meraki became part of Cisco’s Cloud Networking Group (CNG) and has built on its passion for cloud-managed networks.

Cisco is our partner and we are happy to say Cisco Meraki is helping schools to remain safe and secure at several touch points. By integrating endpoint security, network security, and physical security.

Meraki enables schools to create a safe campus environment that empowers students to focus on learning, teachers to focus on teaching, and IT to focus on proactive projects.

In this blog post we show five ways to Keep Students and Teachers safer with this technology.

Five (5) ways to Keep Students Safer with Cloud Management

1. Make the most of next-generation Wi-Fi

Cisco Meraki Cloud Management offers a flexible, easily adaptable solution that is part of a reliable system.

The network infrastructure is fast and available anywhere, anytime. It is accessible to everyone.

Teachers, visitors, staff, and students feel confident using fast Wi-Fi access, which now is a must in all institutions worldwide.

The provisioning of this service is vital due to the fact that most students ranked Wi-Fi access as the most important technology necessary to study/learn.

 

2. Securing school devices

An endpoint management solution helps in countless ways. Endpoint management solutions could track lost devices, and remotely track stolen devices, to ensure sensitive information is protected.

With a system that offers geofencing, IT administrators can set limits for specific locations in which devices must be contained and send an alert if the device leaves that designated area.

The advantage that Cisco Meraki Cloud Management offers is that it manages all devices through one system, and allows IT administrators, to deploy security patches to hundreds or thousands of devices in minutes, ensuring that school-controlled devices are always up-to-date and virus-free.

We recommend Cisco Meraki Cloud Management architecture because it offers powerful and intuitive centralized management.  Meraki access points provide the world’s most innovative wireless networking.

Zero-touch deployments, multi-site visibility/control, and automated alerts make centralized network deployment, protection, and management a breeze.

• Integrated intrusion detection and prevention system (WIDS/WIPS)
• High-density Wi-Fi, both indoors and outdoors
• Intuitive browser-based user interface
• Auto-configuration, plug-and-play deployment

 

3. Security starts with simplicity

Currently, there are many learning options, different systems, and courses. All this data is stored in the cloud or on-premises to allow better and easier access to information.

Student records contain sensitive information that needs to be always secured. Meraki Cloud Management ensures this data is always safe and secure.

Teachers and students can be victims of scams sent via email, and accidentally hand over sensitive data. This could also happen if they accidentally download an infected file.

These emails are disguised as being sent from academic leaders requesting private financial data. In order to avoid all these events, we trust Cisco Meraki Cloud Management to create a safer learning environment that will keep sensitive data secured.

4. Stop Malicious files and viruses

Cisco Meraki Cloud Management ensures a safe school network, by monitoring events and preventing cyber threats, thanks to an interactive and intuitive security center view in the Meraki dashboard management.

Important benefits provided:

• Get advanced malware protection with sandboxing
• SSL decryption/ inspection, remote browser isolation, data loss prevention, and granular app control
• Uncover and block a broad spectrum of malicious domains, IPs, URLs, and files being used in attacks
• Get secure, reliable, and faster access to the internet and cloud apps

 

5. Increase visibility and make your educational facility safe with Meraki Cloud Management

Protect the school’s assets proactively and remotely, monitoring every space with Meraki  Cloud Managed Smart Cameras.

Meraki’s family of smart cameras brings simplicity, visibility, and intelligence to all institutions.

Each model has a powerful processor, the same kind that some smartphones have, and an innovative architecture that minimizes physical infrastructure.

These smart cameras help ensure physical security and provide advanced business intelligence.

Meraki cameras include fast processing power, strong security features, and sophisticated analytics in a simple package.

With increased capacity in cloud storage, Meraki smart cameras provide innovative ease of installation, configuration, and operation.

Best of all, it’s removing the network video recorder from the picture (NVR). It also reduces the CAPEX of the equipment and the simple architecture minimizes lifetime OPEX costs.

This new high-end technology allows the system to scale efficiently to any size, with storage expansion with the addition of each camera.

Video is stored locally, giving administrators peace of mind, knowing that if the network connection drops, the cameras will continue to record footage. Every smart camera comes with reliable built-in storage.

This solution automatically purchases publicly signed SSL certificates, and all Meraki management data is always encrypted by default.

• Easily connect with no special software or browser plug-ins required
• Secure video access and ensure the privacy of all role-based user accounts
• Simplify storage and access to historical data with Cloud Archive, and much more.
• Use WAN bandwidth only when needed

 

Conclusion

Many schools and colleges nowadays are more likely to improve cloud computing performance, cost containment, reliability, and environmental sustainability.

To achieve all these goals and innovate the educational sector, Cisco is always looking for ways to bring new and effective technology solutions to the mainstream. And it brings Meraki Cloud Management to contribute an important role in managing the security status and vulnerability of the School’s IT assets.

The management of applications involves repetitive tasks, but Meraki Cloud Management allows servers and pushes code automatically via APIs instead of managing these tasks manually.

Also, Cisco Meraki will help with connectivity and mobility solutions, to transform the way teachers and students approach education and learning processes.

Contact us today to begin your Cisco Meraki Wireless Transformation.